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Unread postby JoshF » 01 Feb 2009 00:16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksRNNW8xsOc

When I was on holiday this was the first arcade that I went in and found that some people are very good at games. The thing is that it seemed like every one in every arcade was this good (still managed to beat a few people on tekken 5 and virtual fighter 4).
i had a go thinking that i would be ok at it as i have played guitar hero but its just a bit different ;).
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Unread postby obiyer » 24 Oct 2009 01:46

I can relate to this article when I look back at my own gaming experiences, I'm one of those PS-era gamers with bad taste, a lot of my most memorable experiences was in line with what the article was saying.

The first game I had for PS and my all time favorite is Final Fantasty Tactics for the Playstation, mind you, I didn't play this game like it was meant to be played. It was because for one reason: I didn't have a memory card. I forget the reason, maybe we couldn't afford it or whatever, but the case was I was forced to play Final Fantasy Tactics without saving the game. Now, a lot of players who played it know that I couldn't have finished it. But at the time, it wasn't the point. The point was me seeing how far I could get in one play through, and how many classes I could unlock. My best achievement was unlocking the Oracle class by Mandalia Plains, after the second battle. I don't remember how far I got, to Dorter I think, before I borrowed a memory card from a friend, but this blunted FFT for me. Supposedly this was one complicated and harsh game, but it wasn't to me. Once I got a memory card I ran right through it, leveled whenever and beat it. But I think what made "going" through the game so easy, is I didn't have cold feet anymore. I mean, I restarted the thing a lot of times and faced the game over screen quite a bit, and wasn't scared to lose. I don't think I have ever mastered a game quite like I did with FFT, and after reading the article I think it makes sense why.

I'm actually this type of player:

especially if you suck, which, if you are reading this because you expect some sort of a revelation from me, you most certainly do


But I took a lot from this article, so much, that I read it twice trying to understand what it was saying. I don't think I've actually played anything honestly, except for some competitive multi-player games, in the last 9-10 years now of gaming. I've played RPG's, MMORPG's (lol? - but I got to meet a lot of cool people), and well I think I was looking for "profoundness" in the wrong places. Especially, when I got to a point where I wouldn't play a game unless I could hack, so I could finish it as fast as possible. This article was a really eye opener to me, as well as the "Can Games be Art?" article. But, what gets me is, why I couldn't figure this out myself? I mean, that's what the quote above means doesn't it? Why is it that I'm waiting for some weird revelation to come to me about a recreational activity that's pretty trivial to begin with. Well, I'll end with that. Thanks again.

[User was banned for posting again, this time a huge entirely off-topic post, which was also retarded into the bargain. --icy]
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Unread postby icycalm » 24 Oct 2009 13:53

Recreational activities are not "trivial". They are the most important things you will do in this life. Life itself is a recreational activity.

As for why you couldn't figure these things out for yourself, you must be pretty stupid if you can't figure even THAT one out. I mean seriously fucking stupid -- bottom of the fucking pile.

For the same reason you didn't figure out the general theory of relativity or map out the human DNA, you fucking moron!
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Unread postby Siren » 06 Mar 2010 16:27

icycalm wrote:Sometimes I think -- when I sit down to think about arcade games, their past, their future -- that if I could only fly people to Tokyo and take them to an arcade in Akihabara even for an hour, I could make them see. I am convinced that if it was possible to do such a thing I could get practically anyone addicted to these games; if I did it with enough people I could single-handedly turn around the fortunes of the arcade industry. Sometimes I think this is the only way. They'd see the magic up close, I tell myself. They'd get hooked on it.


That was my favorite part of the entire article. I've tried to get my friends into the games I enjoy and it never went over well. It's always "Wow, this game is hard... gotta go!" or "If I were you I would have broken this game into pieces!". I know my brother doesn't understand videogames, but I would still like to play a few matches of Street Fighter II against him. Yeah, this article makes me want to do just that.

Oh and another thing: Save a few reasonable people, the posters in that Shmups thread you linked should be decapitated; or just grow the fuck up.
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Unread postby icycalm » 03 Apr 2010 00:48

Here is the essay in Chinese again:

http://derain0324.spaces.live.com/blog/ ... !481.entry

(You need to copy-paste the link into your browser.)

The previous forum link doesn't work anymore I think, so this should be a bit more reliable.

I really wish someone would sit down and do a decent Japanese translation of this. I would even pay money to see it happen -- though I would not be able to check the results, which is why a free translation would be best (because I would be guaranteed that the person was putting effort in it and not just doing it for the money).

I mean, I am sure it would become the number 1 most famous essay in Japanese hardcore gaming circles in no time. After all, the dudes do not seem to have any serious analytical/critical writers among them at all -- this stuff would seem to them as if it had fallen from outer space.
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Unread postby icycalm » 28 Nov 2010 22:32

In Polish:

http://blattdorf.wordpress.com/2010/10/ ... ra-arcade/

No idea if it's machine-translated or hand-crafted.
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Unread postby Bread » 29 Nov 2010 14:54

My Polish associate tells me it appears to be a genuine human translation, and it's full of poor grammar.
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Unread postby icycalm » 07 Dec 2010 14:42

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/arcade_culture/

I wrote:Indeed, it's not too far-fetched to imagine a day when the arcades are reborn again in some sort of Snow Crash-like Metaverse, a virtual world where we'll all be able to hang out in massive virtual reality arcades to our heart's content (think of a massively multiplayer version of the arcade in Shenmue and you are halfway there).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Room

Game Room is a gaming service for the Xbox 360 video game system and Microsoft Windows PCs. Launched on March 24, 2010, Game Room lets players download classic video games and compete against each other for high scores.[1] Players on both Xbox 360 and Windows PCs access Game Room through their respective versions of Microsoft's Live online services (Xbox Live and Games for Windows – Live).

Format

The Game Room front end can be downloaded at no charge from Microsoft's Marketplace online storefront. When launched, players are presented with a three-story virtual video arcade, each story containing four separate rooms. These rooms may be decorated however the player wishes, using the included themes and set pieces. The player can fill the rooms with virtual game cabinets that are used to play arcade and console games downloaded through the service, with each room holding a maximum of eight cabinets.

Games for Game Room are made available through downloadable "game packs." While the game packs are free to download, individual games must be purchased in order to be played fully.[1] Players may play each game in the game pack once without charge, limited to ten minutes of game time. Games may be purchased for unlimited use on one platform of the player's choosing (either Xbox 360 or Windows PC) or on both platforms. Players who purchase games for use on a single platform may upgrade them later to add the other platform. When a game is purchased, the player may stock their arcade with copies of the cabinets, which are then used to launch the games themselves.
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Unread postby icycalm » 10 Feb 2012 21:14

i can think of few sights more disconcerting than that of an empty amusement hall or game center… especially those which specialise in out-of-fashion games… i always feel slight paranoia about the places i visit going out of business or devoting all of their space to more popular games, and i never feel that i’ve played nearly long enough, and that i should play a few more games for their sake, even though their business is probably doing just fine, and a few of my coins are not going to make a difference anyway. it’s more of an obligation to give ‘moral support’ if nothing else…


http://yy22.tumblr.com/post/17318366331
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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Jan 2014 03:57

https://archive.foolz.us/vr/thread/1340538/

Anonymous wrote:>games released in the arcades are of a much higher quality, on average, than games released for the home console market.
http://insomnia.ac/commentary/arcade_culture/

Do you agree /vr/?


Anonymous wrote:>>1340538

Disagree. Without even going into deeper comparisons, there are many genres of games that simply aren't feasible in an arcade setting.

Beyond that, many arcade games are poorly designed and overly difficult rip-offs of the better arcade games. Just like in the console scene. The only difference is the bad console games stick around in people's memories because they are easier to access. Very few people collect PCB's.

Have a scroll through MAME sometime and play games in alphabetical order, starting anywhere you like. You soon figure out arcades always had their fair share of shit.

I'd put the PlayStation library up against the entire arcade library anyday.


Anonymous wrote:>>1340660
A random game picked from MAME is not representative of the quality of a random game from a real arcade. MAME aims to document everything, real arcades only kept games that made enough money.


I would have just replied with a "gaystation lol", but his reply is good too. They are both true, and taking together they utterly demolish the dude's objection.

On the other hand, the gaystation did have Metal Gear Solid, which is indeed more fun than any arcade game ever... So I guess it depends on whether you are looking for quantity or quality. Either way, my observation is still correct: if you pick a random game from an arcade (from an ARCADE, not from MAME!), your chances of a good time will ALWAYS be higher than if you picked it randomly from the shelves of game store. Nothing about this situation changes for the 1 in 100,000 times that you will happen to pick Far Cry 2.
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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Jan 2014 04:05

In fact my claim was even an understatement. The reality is that, if we are talking about a MODERN arcade, YOUR CHANCES OF HAVING A BAD TIME ARE ZERO.

Seriously, dudes. In my 3-year stay in Japan between 2004 and 2007, I don't remember seeing a SINGLE bad game in the arcades. The worst were the music games, but these aren't videogames anyway (as I'll be explaining in my review of Guitar Freaks). If your answer to my claim is "rhythm games" you might as well say "UFO catchers" -- which plenty of people DID indeed say in various forums when my essay was first published. And if you say "UFO catchers" you might as well say "the chocolates that they sell next to the cash register" or "talking to ugly girls in the arcade" -- none of which have anything to do with videogames. From the fact that something is inside an arcade, you can by no means conclude that that something is a videogame -- and my article talks only about videogames. So yeah. It is essentially impossible to have a bad time playing games in a modern arcade -- and in point of fact I don't remember having had a bad time at an arcade EVER in my life (and I've been playing in arcades since at least Arkanoid).
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Unread postby icycalm » 02 Apr 2014 21:46

Will VR bring a Resurgence of the Arcade?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=795104

icycalm wrote:Indeed, it's not too far-fetched to imagine a day when the arcades are reborn again in some sort of Snow Crash-like Metaverse, a virtual world where we'll all be able to hang out in massive virtual reality arcades to our heart's content (think of a massively multiplayer version of the arcade in Shenmue and you are halfway there).


http://insomnia.ac/commentary/arcade_culture/

Note the Snow Crash reference that Abrash is also now using. The same terms that are currently buzzing around, nearly a decade ago.
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Unread postby icycalm » 02 Apr 2014 21:48

Ugh, "reborn again". How could this have escaped me for so long?
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